How Goals Performance Review Can Help You Succeed More

Setting and achieving goals can be an interesting adventure on your journey to success if you form the habit of tracking and reviewing your performance on the goals you have set. To achieve this, you can carry out a periodic or end-of-cycle goals performance review to know how well you are progressing.

In this article, you will find useful tips on how to carry out a goals performance review and important steps to take on the outcome of your reviews.

What Is a Goals Performance Review?

A goals performance review is an intentional and planned activity carried out to measure your productivity based on your set goals. The real essence of this review is to identify what is going right, what is going wrong, and to set future goals.((Chron: Performance Review Sample Goals))

Taking a periodic review of your goals is an indicator that you are serious about achieving them, and this can actually be a source of motivation to achieve your goals.

Benefits of a Goals Performance Review

There are countless benefits associated with measuring your performance and progress on your goals. You will find some of them below.

Keep Track of Your Goals

It’s easy to get distracted and lose focus if you do not create a plan to follow through with your goals. This won’t happen when you have a plan in place such as a performance review. The review will even be more significant when you have many goals to track, such as financial goals, career goals, family goals, health goals, etc.

Measure Your Performance

A scheduled review will help you to evaluate yourself and see how you are performing with your goals. Many times, the information you gather from this evaluation can help you sit tight or push you to do more to accomplish your goals.

Identify Necessary Adjustments

A goals performance review can show you what is working and what is not in your efforts to achieve your goals. Therefore, you might find from your evaluation that you need to make certain adjustments in order to accomplish your goals.

Achieve All-Around Success

Without deliberate reviews, there is a tendency to perform well in one area while other areas suffer. A periodic goals performance review can help you live a balanced life as you keep track of all of your goals and make sure you are not falling short in any area.

How to Carry out a Goals Performance Review

Carrying out an effective goals performance review begins with setting your goals correctly. Be clear about your expectations and results. When you set S.M.A.R.T Goals, it will be much easier for you to track, measure, and evaluate them.

There are no hard and fast rules for carrying out a goals performance review. It all depends on the kind of goals and the time you attach to your goals. However, as a guide, here are some ways you can review your goals:

Based on End Results

Some goals are “end goals,” and the only way to review them is by whether they turn out as a hit or miss. For example, setting a goal to land a particular job or making the cut-off point in a professional exam can be a hit or miss.

However, when you have a couple of goals in different areas, your performance review can include looking at how many of your end goals you have been able to achieve versus the ones you couldn’t achieve. You will be able to judge whether you are generally making progress or not.

Based on Milestones and Timelines

For effective goal setting and tracking, it is usually advised that when setting your goals, you should break them down into smaller units so that you can measure your performance throughout and also get motivated when you accomplish those smaller goals. The milestones will help you to know if you are moving closer to accomplishing your bigger goals or not. Below are some examples of this kind of review.

Building a Home

If you plan on building your own home within the next three years, for example, securing a landed property and getting your building plan approved by the government in the first year are significant milestones towards your building goal.

Losing Weight

If you plan to lose 80 pounds in one year, and your milestone is set at 20 pounds in three months, carrying out a quarterly review of your weight apart from checking the scales weekly can give you a picture of your weight loss journey.

Career Advancement

If you set a goal to become a CEO in 5 to 8 years from your current level as a mid-level manager, having a rising portfolio every two to three years is a notable milestones in accomplishing your goal.

Retirement

Another example is planning to retire at 50, meaning that you want to be financially secure at 50. If you are currently 35, your investment portfolio review can be set to every 3 years to know how close or far you are from your goal. You would have carried out this review at least four times before your planned retirement.

What a Goals Performance Review Reveals

Your review can show you different things about your goals and yourself, including:

  • That you have achieved your goals
  • That you failed to achieve your goals
  • That you are on course to achieving your goals
  • That at the rate you are going, you might not achieve your goals

Whatever it is that your review reveals, there is always something to be done to improve the situation.

What to Do When You Fall Short of Your Goals

When you fall short of your goals, there are several things you can do to get yourself back on track.

Review Possible Reasons for Failure

If it is an end goal, then you might want to ask questions about why the goal failed. Is it that you didn’t put in the required work, planning, diligence, or follow-up? Or were there simply factors outside of your control?

Generate Ideas to Mitigate the Problems Now or in the Future

If you are able to trace what is responsible for the failure, then brainstorm possible ways to mitigate such problems so that they won’t be an hindrance to achieving your goal in the future.

Get Motivated

If you are still within your set time limit but are running out of time, what you need is motivation and a positive attitude. You don’t have to give up on your goals, irrespective of what the results currently look like.

Change Your Goal Post

Changing your goal post might mean extending the deadline if possible, reducing your goal projection to a smaller manageable scale, or doing something different.

What to Do When You Are Reaching Your Goals

It’s okay to celebrate the achievement of your goals, but it’s also not quite time to relax. You can do the following when you are hitting your goals.

Raise the Bar

It is better to set hard-to-reach goals than to set ones that you can reach without much sweat. So when you hit your goal, you should raise the bar.

For example, if you set a goal to read two books in a month, and you’ve been consistent with your goal for about 4 to 6 months, you don’t have to wait until the end of the year to set another goal. Increase the books from 2 to 3, and you’ll have more books and knowledge added to your archive in a year.

Improve the Quality of Your Outputs

When you are hitting your goals, you can also increase the quality of your outputs. For example, if you set performance goals like meeting deadlines, you won’t just stop at meeting the deadlines, but you will also ensure that the quality of your work deliverables is top-notch.

Dream Bigger and Set New Goals

Reaching your goals and hitting your targets too often might be an indication that you are not dreaming big enough or that you have outgrown the kinds of goals you are setting. It is time to start thinking differently and create a new set of goals that will stretch your abilities.

Bottom Line

There is always something to learn from an honest goals performance review. It is important to note that doing well with your goals does not mean that you have given your best, and falling short of your goals does not mean you are not doing enough.

Regardless of the outcomes of your review, you will always find an opportunity to do something better: to change your strategy or approach, to aim for something higher (or lower), or to set a brand new set of goals.

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